From relish to salsa

The relish project went so well and tasted so good that this weekend I made salsa. Now that I've used up all my cucumbers (except for the three more that are growing out back), I now had to use up some of my tomatoes.

The relish was easy -- all I had to do was chop up the veggies, let them sit for an hour in pickling salt and then cook it all up for 20 minutes in a pot with some spices. And, even though I stressed about the canning process beforehand -- thinking it was going to be difficult -- it was pretty simple and straightforward. Really, I just followed step-by-step directions.

So, I made salsa on Friday night while Ryan was out for a boys night. For starters, it was a lot more work. From the time I started chopping vegetables to the time I finished canning the last jars, a little over three hours had gone by.

I now have 12 cups of salsa in my basement and unfortunately, it's not that tasty. In fact, it's not really all that edible with chips. It's too vinegar-y. But it's not my fault, I followed the recipe and the directions to the letter, it's just not to our liking.

Oh well, I'll use it up over time for cooking with -- it'll probably be tasty when cooked up with chicken.

But one bad recipe won't deter me. In another week I should have enough red tomatoes again to make salsa all over again (and then a week after that there should be enough tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce -- yes I have a lot of tomatoes). And this time I'll use my friend's recipe -- I know it's good. If it doens't turn out then I'll give up and no it's me.